Zur Unterscheidung von Eigenkapital und Fremdkapital : Überlegungen zu alternativen Klassifikationsansätzen der Außenfinanzierung

External finance is considered to devide into equity and debt finance. The criteria established to distinguish the two classes allow a useful description of financing instruments. The legal status of the financier when the company becomes insolvent is an arbitrary criterion and not appropriate for all purposes of analysis. Is is suggested to choose one continous criterion for the classification of financing instruments which derives from the purpose at hand. Two simple proposals are put forward for discussion, one of which is oriented on the capital market, and the second uses a production factor model.